San Jose was one of those raiding teams and, on Tuesday night, it’ll unveil its find when forward Melker Karlsson makes his NHL debut against Edmonton.

“Melker is a hard, committed player. We’re still finding out a lot about him,” Sharks head coach Todd McLellan said, per CSN Bay Area. “He’s not going to score a whole bunch of goals, but he’ll play on the inside. He’ll keep his nose over the puck.”

Karlsson, 24, was in training camp with San Jose and appeared in two preseason games, going scoreless with six PIM. Previously, he’d earned a reputation as a hard-working and hard-nosed contributor for Skelleftea, one that could provide some offense (66 points in 216 games) when called upon.

It’ll be interesting to see how his game translates to the NHL after scoring four goals and eight points in 20 games with AHL Worcester.

One of Karlsson’s ex-Skelleftea teammates from last season, Joakim Lindstrom, is having a solid year in St. Louis with three goals and six points through 23 games. Another former teammate, defenseman Johan Alm, was in training camp with the Predators and is now a regular contributor with their farm team in AHL Milwaukee.

As for Karlsson, he’ll play on a line with Barclay Goodrow and James Sheppard tonight and could be in line for some decent minutes, given fellow Sharks forwards Tyler Kennedy and Matt Nieto are unavailable.

McLellan is excited about seeing what Karlsson can do.

“He’ll give you everything he has,” the head coach explained. “Character and commitment are two of the words we use when we talk about him.”

“He showed up, wasn’t feeling real good,” Head coach Todd McLellan said. “We’ll see how he is at game time. He’s questionable.”

In grand opaque hockey update tradition, “wasn’t feeling good” could mean anything from an injury to an illness.

It would be a shame if Couture is indeed dealing with a setback, as it seemed like he was getting his game together lately. Couture scored three points in the last four games after suffering through a five-game pointless slump.

Mike Brown may draw back into the lineup in Couture’s absence. Kurz points out that Tyler Kennedy was also placed on IR today.

PHT already made note of somesignificant (and smaller) IR moves on Tuesday, but in a quest to graciously save you some clicks, here’s a collection of some of the other injured reserve placements of note. Some could be a pretty big deal, too.

(Note: this is a good spot to mention other IR assignments in the comments section if there are any important omissions.)

Cody Franson is on Toronto’s IR and ruled himself out of the Maple Leafs’ season-opener, TSN’s Jonas Siegel reports. It looks like Franson is dealing with knee issues.

The Nashville Predators placed Viktor Stalberg and Matt Cullen on IR while Mike Fisher remains on the non-roster IR. This marks another tough beginning to the season for Stalberg, who was banged-up heading into his Nashville debut in 2013-14.

The New York Islanders placed Lubomir Visnovsky (back) and Matt Carkner (upper body) on injured reserve. The hope for an up-and-coming Isles team is that “Lubo” will indeed be day-to-day, as he could be a key blueliner if healthy. Sadly, that’s been a big “if” during much of his career.

Nothing has been made official, but looks more and more likely that San Jose will ice a third line of rookies Chris Tierney and Barclay Goodrow, along with Tommy Wingels when the season gets underway on Wednesday in Los Angeles.…General manager Doug Wilson said numerous times in the offseason that his team will get younger. If Tierney, 20, and Goodrow, 21, make the roster, along with 19-year-old defenseman Mirco Mueller’s spot now assured, that will be enough to prove Wilson wasn’t kidding.

Injuries to Raffi Torres, James Sheppard and Tyler Kennedy have opened the door for Tierney and Goodrow, both of whom are waiver exempt and can be sent to AHL Worcester at any time.

Despite a number of key injuries, the San Jose Sharks have managed to keep in the hunt for the Pacific Division.

With the National Hockey League on its Olympic break, the Sharks currently sit second in the division, seven points back of the Anaheim Ducks with a game in hand and the stretch drive about to begin.

Along the way, the Sharks have seen two key members of their scoring attack fall to injury – Logan Couture (a hand injury) and Tomas Hertl (a knee injury suffered on a Dustin Brown major penalty for kneeing). And there have been plenty of others, too. That includes those in the supporting class, like Tyler Kennedy and Raffi Torres, who has yet to play a game this season due a torn ACL that required surgery in September.

Yet the Sharks have managed to rise above three other teams in the division and keep the Ducks in their sights. That has left the team’s general manager Doug Wilson quick to compliment his players and coaching staff.

“To me, the players and coaches have done an excellent job in this type of season and schedule, to get through some of the challenges that we faced,” Wilson told the San Jose Mercury News.